Iain Martin is a political commentator, and a former editor of The Scotsman and former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the men who blew up the British economy, published by Simon & Schuster.. As well as this blog, he writes a column for The Sunday Telegraph. You can read more about Iain by visiting his website

If Cameron has changed his mind on global warming why doesn't he just say so?

For months now Tory high-ups have been briefing that they are going to crack down on green taxes (taxes which they voted for, incidentally). Seven eco levies in particular have been identified, it is claimed. The Tories are going to get tough, just you wait and see. Oh yes, those green taxes are for the chop, any minute now …

Those pushing this line are sincere in wanting help for consumers, presumably. However, they may also be playing a game, advocating action which they know won't happen because the Lib Dems won't allow it, thus allowing the Tories during the election campaign to blame high energy bills on the obstinacy of Clegg's gang.

But I am sceptical that what is being suggested by Tory sources will or can ever happen in anything more than a token manner (probably in George Osborne's Autumn Statement). While it is not like me to stick up for the Liberal Democrats, they do have a point when the party's ministers say that the Tory leadership signed up to this green stuff (enthusiastically) and that many of the levies and schemes that cost consumers dear involve contracts long since signed.

But what is most puzzling is the Prime Minister's position on all of this. He has dropped hints in speeches that he has gone off greenery, and this morning an unidentified source close to David Cameron told two newspapers that he was determined to get rid of all the "green crap". (Steve Hilton, erstwhile Cameron guru and architect of the Vote Blue, Vote Green slogan, cover your ears.)

If the Prime Minister has had a change of heart it is understandable. Greenery is all a bit pre-crash. Like records by Keane, Nokia phones, Jimmy Carr, fruit smoothies and stories about the probe Britain was sending to Mars (the probe crashed).

Times have changed. But what is missing from him is any detailed, frank explanation of why he views it differently now and what he proposes to do. Such a speech, or series of speeches, would surely get a hearing if they were well written and sincere, particularly from those who have also gone off greenery in recent years or from those who hate that politicians rarely admit mistakes.

Many people – not me – were, like Cameron, wildly enthusiastic about green politics around the time the then new Tory leader was hugging a husky in 2005 and 2006. Now it has all got more complicated. Doubts have multiplied about how fast global warming is happening, whose fault it is and what (perhaps not a lot) can be done about it. We have all switched to dreadful energy-saving eco light bulbs. They are worse than the old light bulbs and bills have still gone through the roof.

In this country we have also been through a long period where the problem has not been too much growth (with emissions resulting) but rather too little. People might understand if energy and environmental policy changed to fit new circumstances, if someone levelled with them about it.

It is, I know, an old-fashioned thought. Hopelessly naive. It will never catch on. But if the Prime Minister has changed his mind about greenery why can't he just say so and explain why?